With class over for the day students streamed out of the high school, headed for cram schools, part time jobs, or simply home. A short girl with long brown hair turned to say goodbye to her friends as they went their separate ways.
"I'm off to work, I'll see you tomorrow Uo, Hana."
"Tohru are those new gloves?" Hana asked.
"Yes, Kyo got them for me," Tohru said.
"That was thoughtful of him," Uo commented.
"They look warm," Hana said.
As Tohru went on her way the two turned to glare at a red haired boy who was trying to slip away unnoticed.
"Why did you get her those?" Uo asked her attitude markedly different than it had been a minute before.
"Wait a minute, you just said it was a thoughtful gift," Kyo protested.
"I'll admit your intentions were good but your execution sucks,"
"What? What's wrong with gloves?" Kyo asked mystified.
"They look like boy's gloves," Uo said flatly.
"They can't be they were in the Women's section,"
"Of what? The hardware store?"
"The uh, sporting goods store," Kyo replied, beginning to get an inclining of where he'd gone wrong.
Uo facepalmed. "Tohru isn't going cross country skiing you idiot you should have gone for something cute."
"Tohru can still pull off mittens," Hana broke in. "Fuzzy pink mittens. What a waste."
Uo sighed. "Look next time you want to get Tohru something we're coming with you."
"Actually it would be easier if he just gave us the money and let us pick out something appropriate," Hana said.
"Hey great idea. And don't be stingy we know your family is loaded."
Kyo put it out of his mind like he usually did with Uo and Hana's teasing and went to practice. But the conversation came to him later when he went to pick Tohru up from work. He looked around at the women and girls on the street and realized that they were wearing colorful woven gloves or sleek leather ones. Not puffy lined ones. Maybe he had gotten it wrong after all.
Then Tohru came out, pulling on her new gloves. Kyo sighed. "Look if you want to get cuter gloves or mittens or something I won't be upset."
"But I like these gloves," she replied. "They are warm and besides they came from you."
She smiled up at him and Kyo felt warmer too.